Shopee leaving Indian market

Singaporean e-commerce firm Shopee, is leaving the Indian market in a seemingly sudden decision. Shopee is a low-cost e-commerce platform that launched in India last year, after which it rapidly used a tried-and-tested strategy of deeply discounted products to expand in the Indian market.

The Sea group, owner of Shopee said in a statement, “In view of global market uncertainties, we have decided to close our early-stage Shopee India initiative. During this period of transition, we will focus on supporting our local seller and buyer communities and our local team to make the process as smooth as possible.”

It is unclear if government pressure behind the scenes was involved in Shopee’s decision, or if this was purely a business decision driven by the “global market uncertainties” cited by the company. Until recently, the app has been working as usual.

Shopee sells products across categories, which includes fashion, electronic appliances, cosmetics, automobile accessories, along with grocery and sports related items. The ecommerce platform has its operations in Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, Brazil, Colombo, Spain, France apart from Singapore.

CAIT has welcomed the decision of Shopee to exit from India and said that any company which will violate the sovereign law of the country and breach data collected from India shall meet the same fate.

Last year, CAIT had launched a move against Shopee and later followed it up with the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Commerce. Shopee too faced market heat from the likes of Meesho, IPO-bound Snapdeal, B2B commerce giant Udaan, Dealshare, among others.